Victorian Costuming

Fairy wings

I need some fairy wings for Costume College so I whipped a set up. (Doesn’t everyone NEED fairy wings at some point in their lives?) Not being one to buy something like that, I decided to make some.

I needed 4 wire hangers, wire cutters and 2 pairs of black nylons ( I really wanted green or gold but now that the 1990’s are gone, one can’t find anything but taupe and black.) I also needed packing tape, scissors, silver embroidery thread and a needle.

I took the 4 wire hangers and cut the hook off. I bent the hangers into the desired shape and then slid one leg of black nylons over each hanger. Needless to say, the butt/crotch part to the nylons had been cut off. I taped the nylons over the end where the hanger twists around itself. I left the excess nylon stay put because I haven’t decided how the wings will be attached to my costume yet and I may need the extra nylon . And for the sake of packing I’m not permanently attaching the 4 wings together yet. For this photo, I wrapped the excess nylon around the wire ends to hide them and hold them in place long enough to take the photograph.

The veins are done with silver embroidery thread. I think they look pretty good.

The time I spent making these was the time I allotted for one more stab at fixing the Ugly Bag o’ Tea Gown. You recall I threatened that if I didn’t get it sorted by the weekend, it was going back into the closet of shame. Well, since I didn’t actually work on it since that threat, I am giving it until the end of the weekend now.

Tomorrow I hope to share some photos of the wonderful way I wasted valuable sewing time on Saturday.

4 thoughts on “Fairy wings”

I think they will do the trick. I think I will need help getting them on but, apparently, Costume College has a panic room that you can run to and get some help. I’m going solo in my hotel room (I decided space and solitude out way the cost of not sharing the expenses. I just can’t do strangers 24 hours a day for 4 days) so I wont have anyone to help me in my room. I will run to the panic room to do up the back of my gown and to help me clip my wings (pun intended).